Research Links Month of Birth to Disease
Feb. 3 -- You may dismiss astrology as a harmless pseudo-science, but your birthday could have more importance than you think. Some scientists now believe the month in which you were born may predispose you to certain illnesses.
Medical experts worldwide have found specific illnesses and behavioral disorders are more prevalent among people born during certain months or seasons of the year. The list includes asthma, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, leukemia, dyslexia, diabetes and others.
Schizophrenia, for example, has been shown to be more common among people born in January, February and March. Narcolepsy, a sleep disorder, is more frequent among people born in March and less common among those born in September.
Click here to discover what diseases are more common among people born in your birth month.
But don't worry this means you're destined to come down with a particular disorder. Experts agree their findings can't predict what will happen to individuals. They also agree more study is needed to understand the ways your birth month or season influences your health.
The Winter of our Discontent
So what causes the link between disease and birth month or season? Most scientists suspect environmental factors are the culprit.
For instance, fetal exposure to seasonal viruses like the flu virus, or to a symptom of viral exposure like fever, might be a possible cause.
"Some infectious diseases have a seasonal variation," says Dr. Marvin J. Bittner, epidemiologist with the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Omaha, Neb. "The reason for these variations is not entirely understood. In other cases, seasonal variation leads to insights. For example, mosquito-borne diseases vary with mosquito populations and factors such as weather."
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